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10 dictionary results for: Telescope

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

tel·e·scope

[tel-uh-skohp] Pronunciation Key noun, adjective, verb, -scoped, -scop·ing.

–noun

an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms (refracting telescope) consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form (reflecting telescope) has a concave mirror that gathers light from the object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed. Compare radio telescope.

2.	(initial capital letter) Astronomy. the constellation Telescopium.

–adjective

3.	consisting of parts that fit and slide one within another.

–verb (used with object)

4.	to force together, one into another, or force into something else, in the manner of the sliding tubes of a jointed telescope.

5.	to shorten or condense; compress: to telescope the events of five hundred years into one history lecture.

–verb (used without object)

6.	to slide together, or into something else, in the manner of the tubes of a jointed telescope.

7.	to be driven one into another, as railroad cars in a collision.

8.	to be or become shortened or condensed.

[Origin: 1610–20; tele-¹ + -scope; r. telescopium (< NL; see -ium) and telescopio (< It)

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

tel·e·scope (těl'ĭ-skōp') Pronunciation Key
n.

An arrangement of lenses or mirrors or both that gathers visible light, permitting direct observation or photographic recording of distant objects.
Any of various devices, such as a radio telescope, used to detect and observe distant objects by their emission, transmission, reflection, or other interaction with invisible radiation.

v. tel·e·scoped, tel·e·scop·ing, tel·e·scopes

v. tr.

To cause to slide inward or outward in overlapping sections, as the cylindrical sections of a small hand telescope do.
To make more compact or concise; condense.

v. intr.
To slide inward or outward in or as if in overlapping cylindrical sections: a camp bucket that telescopes into a disk.

[New Latin telescopium or Italian telescopio, both from Greek tēleskopos, far-seeing : tēle-, tele- + skopos, watcher; see spek- in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
telescope

1648, from It. telescopio (used by Galileo, 1611), and Mod.L. telescopium (used by Kepler, 1613), both from Gk. teleskopos "far-seeing," from tele- "far" (see tele-) + -skopos "seeing," from skopein "to watch." Said to have been coined by Prince Cesi, founder and head of the Roman Academy of the Lincei (Galileo was a member). Used in Eng. in L. form from 1619. The verb meaning "to force together one inside the other" (like the sliding tubes of some telescopes) is first recorded 1867.

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

telescope
noun
1.	a magnifier of images of distant objects
verb
1.	crush together or collapse; "In the accident, the cars telescoped"; "my hiking sticks telescope and can be put into the backpack"
2.	make smaller or shorter; "the novel was telescoped into a short play"

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The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

telescope (těl'ĭ-skōp') Pronunciation Key

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An arrangement of lenses, mirrors, or both that collects visible light, allowing direct observation or photographic recording of distant objects. A refracting telescope uses lenses to focus light to produce a magnified image. Compound lenses are used to avoid distortions such as spherical and chromatic aberrations. A reflecting telescope uses mirrors to view celestial objects at high levels of magnification. Most large optical telescopes are reflecting telescopes because very large mirrors, which are necessary to maximize the amount of light received by the telescope, are easier to build than very large lenses.
Any of various devices, such as a radio telescope, used to detect and observe distant objects by collecting radiation other than visible light.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
telescope

A device used by astronomers to magnify images or collect more light from distant objects by gathering and concentrating radiation. The most familiar kind of telescope is the optical telescope, which collects radiation in the form of visible light. It may work by reflection, with a bowl-shaped mirror at its base, or by refraction, with a system of lenses. Other kinds of telescopes collect other kinds of radiation; there are radio telescopes (which collect radio waves), x-ray telescopes, and infrared telescopes. Radio and optical telescopes may be situated on the Earth, since the Earth's atmosphere allows light and radio waves through but absorbs radiation from several other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. X-ray telescopes are placed in space.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Telescope

Tel"e*scope\ (t[e^]l"[-e]*sk[=o]p), a. Capable of being extended or compacted, like a telescope, by the sliding of joints or parts one within the other; telescopic; as, a telescope bag; telescope table, etc.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Telescope

Tel"e*scope\, n. [Gr. ? viewing afar, farseeing; ? far, far off + ? a watcher, akin to ? to view: cf. F. t['e]lescope. See Telegraph, and -scope.] An optical instrument used in viewing distant objects, as the heavenly bodies.

Note: A telescope assists the eye chiefly in two ways; first, by enlarging the visual angle under which a distant object is seen, and thus magnifying that object; and, secondly, by collecting, and conveying to the eye, a larger beam of light than would enter the naked organ, thus rendering objects distinct and visible which would otherwise be indistinct and or invisible. Its essential parts are the object glass, or concave mirror, which collects the beam of light, and forms an image of the object, and the eyeglass, which is a microscope, by which the image is magnified.

Achromatic telescope. See under Achromatic.

Aplanatic telescope, a telescope having an aplanatic eyepiece.

Astronomical telescope, a telescope which has a simple eyepiece so constructed or used as not to reverse the image formed by the object glass, and consequently exhibits objects inverted, which is not a hindrance in astronomical observations.

Cassegrainian telescope, a reflecting telescope invented by Cassegrain, which differs from the Gregorian only in having the secondary speculum convex instead of concave, and placed nearer the large speculum. The Cassegrainian represents objects inverted; the Gregorian, in their natural position. The Melbourne telescope (see Illust. under Reflecting telescope, below) is a Cassegrainian telescope.

Dialytic telescope. See under Dialytic.

Equatorial telescope. See the Note under Equatorial.

Galilean telescope, a refracting telescope in which the eyeglass is a concave instead of a convex lens, as in the common opera glass. This was the construction originally adopted by Galileo, the inventor of the instrument. It exhibits the objects erect, that is, in their natural positions.

Gregorian telescope, a form of reflecting telescope. See under Gregorian.

Herschelian telescope, a reflecting telescope of the form invented by Sir William Herschel, in which only one speculum is employed, by means of which an image of the object is formed near one side of the open end of the tube, and to this the eyeglass is applied directly.

Newtonian telescope, a form of reflecting telescope. See under Newtonian.

Photographic telescope, a telescope specially constructed to make photographs of the heavenly bodies.

Prism telescope. See Teinoscope.

Reflecting telescope, a telescope in which the image is formed by a speculum or mirror (or usually by two speculums, a large one at the lower end of the telescope, and the smaller one near the open end) instead of an object glass. See Gregorian, Cassegrainian, Herschelian, & Newtonian, telescopes, above.

Refracting telescope, a telescope in which the image is formed by refraction through an object glass.

Telescope carp (Zo["o]l.), the telescope fish.

Telescope fish (Zo["o]l.), a monstrous variety of the goldfish having very protuberant eyes.

Telescope fly (Zo["o]l.), any two-winged fly of the genus Diopsis, native of Africa and Asia. The telescope flies are remarkable for having the eyes raised on very long stalks.

Telescope shell (Zo["o]l.), an elongated gastropod (Cerithium telescopium) having numerous flattened whorls.

Telescope sight (Firearms), a slender telescope attached to the barrel, having cross wires in the eyepiece and used as a sight.

Terrestrial telescope, a telescope whose eyepiece has one or two lenses more than the astronomical, for the purpose of inverting the image, and exhibiting objects erect.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Telescope

Tel"e*scope\, a. [imp. & p. p. Telescoped; p. pr. & vb. n. Telescoping.] To slide or pass one within another, after the manner of the sections of a small telescope or spyglass; to come into collision, as railway cars, in such a manner that one runs into another. [Recent]

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Telescope

Tel"e*scope\, v. t. To cause to come into collision, so as to telescope. [Recent]

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